I've got a top five, but I've yet to nail down the entire list of ten. So, instead, some honourable mentions!

The Lindemann Award for Fastest Burn Out:Sabaton - The Last StandLoud, boisterous fun that's about as deep as a puddle. But what a hot couple of weeks those were!

The Devin Townsend Award for "This is really good, but I'm not quite feeling it":Devin Townsend Project - TranscendenceDude operates on many wavelengths. Some times I can tune all the way in, and other times I just can't find the signal. This was somewhere in between the two extremes.

Video Game Soundtrack of the Year (Brought to you by Doritos and the Schick Hydrobot):Mick Gordon - DOOMBest soundtrack of the year for the best game of the year. Perfect compliment to the white knuckle adrenaline rush.

The Obscure Bandcamp artist Award for 2015's album of 2016: Neurotech - Evasive / StigmaBecame a firm favourite quickly, and these albums have since rocketed up there in my list of most played.

Abbath - Self TitledComing to this all amped up on early Immortal was a bit of a cold, frosty shock. Slightly too plain sounding black metal with the kind of rock and heavy metal sounds I really don't like bolted on to it. Dad Black Metal.

Mortiis - The Great DeceiverWHAT YEAR IS IT?!Like a Nine Inch Nails cover band that got lost in the dark, cold forests of Norway in 1994, Mortiis reemerges from his troll hole with a somewhat derivative 90s throwback album. Would have blown some minds back in the day, but now, it sounds all a bit played out.

Solid releases that didn't blow me away.The Shape - Dance with the DeadMore bass heavy dance but with added electric guitar. Their best album so far.

Transcendence - Devin TownsendMore of the same DTP stuff that he has admitted he just churns out now to keep the record company happy whilst he pursues other more ambitious projects. Can be a bit of a drag even for a big fan.

The Bones of a Dying World - If These Trees Could TalkNot as good as their last album. Decent post rock/metal though.

3. Twilight Force - Heroes of Mighty MagicDisney power metal! Doesn't fall into the trap of being deadly serious or completely tounge in cheek. This is simply joyous, wonderful fantasy music that doesn't care if you think it's too geeky because it's off riding a friggin' dragon!

1. Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole of the LawThis is an absolute stormer! combining melody and structure with brutality and rage. It's almost lethal in it's potency. Every song brings it's own tricky wrinkle with it, changing the formula up just enough to keep you off balance. Not everyone of them lands perfectly, but when something nails it, it's intense, unhinged brilliance!

Edit: That's not that! Did some more fretting over the number one spot. While In Memoriam is an overall more consistent album, The Whole of the Law projects itself to wild heights with reckless abandon.

Listening to both albums again, back to back. I've got to swap their places.They're both the best damn albums of 2016!(that I've heard so far)

Would like to put in an honorable mention to De La Soul - And The Anonymous Nobody. Best rap album of the year and deserving of the accolades in my opinion. Yet to try the new (and final) Tribe Called Quest album so will report back.

Not listened to yetCausalities of Cool Dark MattersThose ambient/drone albums he put outSome obscure demo stuff that won't see the light of day outside of exclusive packages.

Terria is one of his best albums IMO, not sure what problem you have with it; isn't that fucking riff on Earth Day enough to make you love it?

Casualties of Cool is absolute garbage. Can't remember Dark Matters, is it the second Ziltoid? If so, it's alright but not a patch on the first. His ambient stuff is well good if you like ambient. The demo stuff is ESSENTIAL. There's a few tracks of his like War that sort of sounded cooler as demos.

If you have trouble getting a hold of the demos feel free to shoot me a PM and I can work out a way of uploading the copies I have for you.

Also I think you missed out his Punky Bruster album, ten points from Gryffindor for that faux pas

"O men, how long shall my honour be turned into shame?"@alun_parker1987

Sounds like a joke album to me, like he wasn't even trying. Even the name ticks me off a bit. Seriously, the production is shit on the album, barely any layering of instruments at all which is his trademark. "Lucky Animals" is fucking atrocious.

"O men, how long shall my honour be turned into shame?"@alun_parker1987

Casualties of Cool is anything but a joke album where he didn't try; he talked a lot in the run up to the album and in his autobiography which I recently read that CoC is an exact expression of his frame of mind at that time and that he was probably more satisfied with it than any other album. He made it slowly over the course of 3 years and had to crowd fund the production because his record label wouldn't release it. You have to be in the right mindset for his more mellow stuff, but it's perfect down tempo spooky country music to chill out to. It was also incredible live at the Union Chapel.

I tend to find that whenever he makes a record where he can really express himself and not just churn it out because the label demands, he always produces far more interesting and darker stuff. Ki, Ghost, Casualties of Cool and Devlab are some of my favourites and they're about as far removed from his conventional metal-pop-prog thing as it gets. He does the heavy stuff like one of the best, but he's always more interesting when they fully let him off the leash to do his own thing.

If you're just mistaking CoC for Epicloud then I would lean towards agreeing with you. I really dug that album when it came out because of how happy it was, but you can certainly tell that he wasn't as invested in it as others. In his book he even wrote that he'd been listening to a lot of pop music at the time and wanted to just do a metal pop album to keep the bills paid and the label happy. In reality he thought that the DTP was over by that point.

Mantis wrote:If you're just mistaking CoC for Epicloud then I would lean towards agreeing with you. I really dug that album when it came out because of how happy it was, but you can certainly tell that he wasn't as invested in it as others. In his book he even wrote that he'd been listening to a lot of pop music at the time and wanted to just do a metal pop album to keep the bills paid and the label happy. In reality he thought that the DTP was over by that point.

I bloody was thinking of Epicloud, egg all over my face

EDIT: He played the Union Chapel? That must've been lovely, great venue that.

"O men, how long shall my honour be turned into shame?"@alun_parker1987

Yeah he's played there a couple of times. Once for Ghost and again for CoC, both were pretty special. Ghost was off the back of doing the other three original Project albums back to back though so it was extra memorable.